The Statesman acted as a channel through which its readers could “voice their opinions, assert their rights, and demand their due recognition.” The newspaper reported local, church, and society news and events, as well as national stories that would be of particular interest to African Americans residing in the Mountain West. The publication also featured op-eds about interracial marriage, Jim Crow Laws, and segregation.

When the controversial movie The Birth of a Nation was released in 1915, the paper, by then known as the Denver Star, ran opinion pieces condemning the film, noting in one such piece that its evil “lies in the fact that the play is both a denial of the power of development within the free Negro and an exaltation of race war.” The paper repeatedly called upon its readership to boycott The Birth of a Nation and printed scathing opinion pieces such as a speech delivered by William Lewis, the first African American assistant attorney general, in which he referred to the reels of the film as “three miles of filth.”

The Statesman/Denver Star flourished under the direction of notable editors and publishers. Joseph D.D. Rivers, the first proprietor of the Statesman, was a former student of Booker T. Washington at the Hampton Institute in Virginia. Edwin H. Hackley, who took over as editor in 1892, was the first African American to be admitted to the Colorado bar and originated the American Citizens’ Constitutional Union, “designed to unite the efforts of the colored people in all parts of the country for the advancement of their rights and opportunities.” His wife, Azalia Smith Hackley, served as a co-editor of the women's section of the Statesman, and was the first African American graduate of the University of Denver’s School of Music, a renowned singer, choral director, and activist.

In 1898, George F. Franklin bought the Statesman from Hackley and served as editor until his death in 1901, after which his widow, Clara Williams Franklin, and his son, Chester Arthur Franklin, acted as editors/publishers. In August 1906, the Statesman became Franklin's Paper, The Statesman. Then in November 1912, C.A. Franklin announced that the Statesman would become the Denver Star, stating that it was “a change of name and nothing more,” in order to distinguish it from the similarly titled Colorado Statesman, edited and published by J.D.D. Rivers, the original editor of the Statesman. In March 1913, Franklin sold the Denver Star to the Denver Independent Publishing Company, which published the paper under this name until 1963.

These newspapers have been digitized thanks to an NEH National Digital Newspaper Program grant. You can also read issues of the newspaper online at Library of Congress’ Chronicling America and the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection.

Want to learn more? Check out these additional blog posts:

• Azalia Smith Hackley—Musical Prodigy and Pioneering Journalist
• Two Men Who Helped Pave the Way for African American Activists in Denver